The Gesu Church is a Victorian Cathedralesque
Basilica administered by the Jesuits. In the opinion of some it is the grandest
church in the city. It was built over a nine year period starting in March of
1879, under the direction of Father Burchard Villiger S.J. on ground originally
purchased in Nov. 1866 by Father Felix Barbelin S.J. for the construction of a
Catholic University of Philadelphia. This Institution now is known as St
Josephs University located in Overbrook on the western border of Philadelphia.

At the time of its purchase, most
of the land north of Girard Avenue was just being settled, and to go too much
further north was to venture into wilderness. The city of Philadelphia was
quite small at the time, and the present day forest of houses which now
surround the Gesu were built coincident with and after the construction of the
church and the school.

The following paragraphs were
taken from the 1888 – 1938 Golden Jubilee booklet and the authors in turn
quoted from “a Philadelphia Newspaper”, most likely the Public Ledger which is
no longer published.

A Preview of the Gesu Church from a Philadelphia
Newspaper

1882

The foundations of the new Roman Catholic Church of
the Gesu, corner of Eighteenth and Stiles Streets, are completed and work upon
the structure will begin at once. The Church, when finished, will be one of the
largest and handsomest in Philadelphia. The Old Church of the Holy Family will
be merged into the large Academy building, now standing on Stiles Street, and
to be known as St Joseph’s College. The new Church will after the Roman style
of architecture similar in general design to the Church of the Gesu in Rome. It will have a front of 115 feet on Stiles Street, and a length of 230 feet on Eighteenth Street. From the corners of the front will rise two spires to a height of 200
feet (never completed), both surrounded by ornamented crosses. There will be
five main doors, one under each tower leading to the choir and the main church.
In the center will be three main doors also leading to the main church.
Directly over the doors will be two niches containing statues with three
windows between them. The portal tapers off at a height of 100 feet into a
panel work arch shaped alcove supporting seven statues and surmounted by a
cross similar to those on the spires. On either side of the doors will be six
Doric columns arranged in pairs each column being three and one quarter feet in
diameter. Over these the order will change to Ionic and still higher to
Corinthian. The side elevation of the church will be 84 feet. Behind the
sanctuary, at the corner of 18th

Figure 1: Facade, Church of the Gesu, Phila

and Thompson Streets will stand the sacristy, an exact
counterpart of the corner buildings of the college and connecting with the
Professors’ residence. The Church will be of pressed brick and the interior
will present a handsome appearance, fully in keeping with the exterior. There
are to be no columns to obstruct the view of the worshipers. In a space 152
feet long and 76 feet wide, the pews will be arranged in three double rows in
front of the sanctuary and side chapels, the aisles between them leading to the
central doors of the portal. The ceiling will be 95 feet from the floor, and
the sanctuary 60 feet deep by 45 feet wide, will be lighted through a large
skylight so fixed in the roof behind the arch as to be invisible from the body
of the church. The main altarpiece is to be 63 feet high and 30 feet broad at
the base. Inside the sanctuary there will be a chapel of the Blessed Virgin at
the Gospel side, and of St. Joseph at the Epistle side.

In the transept are to be large side altars, dedicated
to Saints Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier, each spanned by an arch equal in
dimensions to that of the sanctuary. Along the sides of the Church are to be
eight other chapels, four along each side, dedicated to different Saints. The
body of the Church will be lighted through large semi-circular windows over the
side chapels. The pulpit will be placed on the left side of the church,
attached to the pillar placed between the transept and the first side chapel. A
stairway and passage leads up to a hidden gallery known as a triforum affording
communication to the upper windows on the sides and front of the church. The
interior cornice, formed by the top of the main columns where they meet the
floor of the triforum, shall bear a frieze containing in large prominent
letters a Latin inscription taken from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians,
which in English translation of the Bible is rendered as follows: “God hath
given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow of those that are in Heaven, on earth and in Hell.”

The architect for the Gesu was a
man named Edwin
Forrest Durang of Philadelphia who was noted as an eminent architect of
ecclesiastical structures, especially for the Catholic Church. The story is
that when he was engaged to create the plans for the church, Fr. Villiger sent
him to Rome to study the original Gesu and the other churches in the eternal
city. The result was a church similar to the Gesu in Rome but one that
incorporated many ideas from St Peters, in particular using a Latin inscription
as a frieze that extends around the church. On the other hand, the striking
altarpiece is unique in its own right.

As mentioned elsewhere, ground
was broken in March of 1879 for the Gesu. Design work and architectural plans
for the edifice of course had to have been completed before the construction
contracts were let. One consideration that has not been discussed but needs to
be mentioned is the Nativist Riots which occurred in the spring of 1844 and
resulted in the burning of several churches in Philadelphia, notably Old St Michaels. The
riots had a substantial effect on church architecture in Philadelphia. The
adoption of the floor plan of the Gesu in Rome with modifications, made for a
building that had a much better chance of survival from an attack by a mob.
There are no significant exterior windows lower than the triforum level, so it
is almost impossible to loft a fire-bomb through them. Also the doors are
exceptionally thick and heavy. In short, the church is built like a fortress.
The Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul at Logan Circle dates from the same period
and is built in a similar manner.

The Fire

On the bitter cold night of
January 30, 1966, disaster struck. A general alarm fire of unknown origin
consumed the “Old Prep”. This included the original St Joseph’s College buildings
along Stiles Street which were recycled from the original Church of the Holy
Family and the first rectory[2].
Also consumed was most of the classroom building along Seventeenth Street. Left
standing was the classroom building along Thompson Street, the Church of the
Gesu and the second rectory which surrounds the apse of the church. About half
of the complex went up in flames that night. Those that witnessed the fire
remember the festoons of ice from the firemen’s hoses that covered everything. The
firemen fought valiantly to prevent the Gesu from being burnt to the ground,
but I am sure that it was Divine Providence that had the final say. It was a
close thing. When demolition of the remains of the destroyed buildings was in
progress, significant fire damage was discovered on the exterior wall of the
right tower.

The fire precipitated a
vociferous debate over the location and construction of the “New Prep”, including
consideration of plans to move to a location outside the city (www.sjprep.org ). In the end however, the
city block between Stiles Street and Girard Avenue was acquired and the
expanded new facility occupied both the sites of the original buildings
destroyed in the fire as well as the new land. Stiles Street between
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Streets was closed and also occupied by the new
facility. The classroom building along Thompson Street that survived the fire
is now used for the Gesu School (www.gesuschool.org
). In all, the new facility is twice the size of the old complex. In addition,
a rather nice plaza occupies the area directly in front of the church. At the
present time the Prep and the Gesu School are bursting at the seams and the
“new rectory” which had been unoccupied for many years is being recycled into a
classroom building as part of the current capital improvement program. The
Jesuit community now resides in row houses across Eighteenth Street from the
church.

The Closing of the
Parish

A second event of significant
interest occurred in the early 1990’s. This was the closing of the Gesu Parish
by Cardinal Bevilacqua. In the period following the Second World War, the
economy of Philadelphia deteriorated rather badly. The city up to that time had
been a collection of neighborhoods surrounding local factories or mills. In
each neighborhood it was possible for the workers to walk to their jobs or to
travel on the PTC (before Septa) a short distance to work. But gradually these
mills closed one by one over a period of many years devastating the economy and
forcing the workers to look elsewhere for their livelihood. In addition, there
was an influx of agrarian African Americans who were displaced from their
living in the south when the owners of the farms began to mechanize their crop
production methodology. The result was a tectonic shift in the demographics of North Philadelphia and many churches such as the Gesu no longer had the income that they
had come to depend on. This situation existed in varying degrees for over forty
years and it was belatedly recognized by Cardinal Bevilacqua when he closed
several parishes[3]
in this area of the city.

There is yet another
consideration, though. Parishes such as St. Edwards and St. Bonaventure were
closed around the same time. It makes more sense to close parishes like these because
they exist as stand alone units and were set up to minister to their local
parishioners in return for their support. The case of the Gesu is different
because it is not a diocesan church and does not require manpower from the
archdiocese, and it has a city wide presence. All the alumni of St Joes Prep
have a fondness for this venerable institution. One perchance must look
elsewhere for a second reason.

In 1966, Hans Kung SJ and Joseph
Ratzinger were colleagues at the University of Tubingen. Also during Vatican II
(1962-1965) Hans Kung SJ and Joseph Ratzinger both were a “peritus” or theological
expert advising members of the hierarchy. Ratzinger also became an admirer of Karl Rahner SJ. Both Kung and Rahner were eminent theologians. The
Jesuits have always been known as being at the leading edge of theological
thinking. Also some members of the order have been activists, defying secular
authority. We shall pass over in silence the fact that for some reason Pope
John Paul II did not like the Jesuits and the result was a species of
mini-suppression that was quite unpleasant. It was during this period that the
Gesu was closed. Joseph Ratzinger now is Pope Benedict XVI, and it appears that
the differences have been smoothed over.

Currently the
parish no longer exists, so the church is closed to the public. Its main
function is to serve as a chapel for adjacent St Joes Prep. Also it is used for
special occasions for the alumni and for special groups. It is clear that the
church is being “banked” in hope of better times.

The Present Condition of the Gesu Building

The physical condition of the Gesu
can be characterized as “fair”. It is not in bad shape considering its 128
years, but like all things it has deteriorated with age. The peak of the roof
is as high as a 10 story building. Due to its size the building suffers from
local weather systems in a unique way. When the wind is from the east, the
church is partially protected by the school buildings of St Joes Prep. When the
wind is from the west, the exterior wall of the church is the first serious
obstacle the wind gets as it sweeps in from the Belmont Plateau. As one might
expect, the west side of the church has been hammered. The majority of the
water damage is located on this side. The picture below is taken from the altar
looking down the nave at what used to be at one time the grand organ.

Figure 3: View from Main Altar toward rear of the Church, Pulpit on Right

The size and grandeur of the
building is clear from the picture. The Romanesque barrel vault is quite
imposing. But there is a striking difference in the color between the church
below the triforum and the part above the capital forming the floor of the
triforum. When the church was first built, Father Villager wanted to encase the
interior in a marble sheathing. Some how or other the funds for this sheathing
never materialized. The original finish was a skim coat of untreated white
plaster which was vulnerable to soot and dirt. Later a coadjutor named Brother
Schroen SJ over several years painted the lower portion a beige color,
effectively sealing the plaster. However the barrel vault has never been
treated and if the lower portion had not been painted, then the entire church
would look the same as the ceiling. The rear wall next to the organ casework is
almost black with soot and dirt. This is a real problem that needs attention.

When the Gesu was originally
built it had a slate roof. A good slate roof will last for more than 100 years
but they are quite expensive. Toward the end of its life the roof leaked badly
and a few years ago the decision was made to replace the roof with synthetic
slate-like material that does not have quite the wearing qualities of the
original but should last for 50 years or so. Scattered throughout the church
are visible signs of water damage. In the photograph above you can see some
evidence of the damage above and to the left of the organ casework. Water
damage is insidious because if you can see its presence then there may be much
more lurking just out of sight.

In the photograph below the
damage is more visible. This picture was taken looking up at the right hand organ
casework and the barrel vault beyond where more water damage is present.

Figure 4: Organ Casework with water damage in ceiling

Below is the side chapel of St
Aloysius Gonzaga, which is located along the west side of the church. Here the
water damage is quite severe.

Figure 5: Gonzaga side chapel with water damage

In this case the water could have
infiltrated either from the roof, or from defective gutters and downspouts.

The next photo is of the inscription
above the St Ignatius altar located on the same side of the church as the
Gonzaga side chapel. This is part of the frieze that extends around the church.
Here the water damage is visible on the wall of the church above the
inscription.

Figure 6: Detail of Frieze above St Ignatius Altar

The Organs

The history of the organs in the
Gesu is somewhat spotty.[4]
So far there have been five organs, 3 pipe organs and 2 ersatz electronic
organs.

The first organ was originally
installed in the Church of the Holy Family and moved to the Gesu after it was
completed. So far no records of the builder or stop list have turned up. Its
location in the church has never been determined and no trace of it exists.

The second organ was built by
Hook & Hastings, a Boston organ builder[5].
It was installed in 1899 and it still exists and is playable. It has ten stops
with four couplers and it makes a brave little sound that is almost swallowed
up in the immensity of the church. Because of its age it is considered a
historical instrument. Below is a picture of the organ. It sits in the front on
the left side of the church between the pulpit and the adjacent St Ignatius
Altar.

Most likely it was used to
accompany a choir located remotely from the rear gallery. It is interesting to
note that this organ is a “tracker action” organ where a system of mechanical
leavers is used to communicate the organist’s commands from the keyboards to
the pipes.

The console of the fifth organ is
just visible to the right of the picture. It is an undistinguished Allen
electronic instrument whose speakers are located in the triforum.

The third organ is the grand
organ located in the rear gallery. The paragraphs below are taken from the
Golden Jubilee publication already mentioned above.

The Contract for the New Organ

March 1905

Gift of Bernard Corr

On Wednesday February 15th, the W. W.
Kimball Company, of Chicago Ill., having made the most satisfactory offer, and
having given us the fullest guarantee for the reliability of the organ which
they propose to erect in our Church, were awarded the contract for its
construction. The guarantee, which extends over five years, is in the shape of
a bond deposited with the City Trust Company of Philadelphia, for the entire
cost of the organ. The builders are allowed six months for its erection, and
will be engaged for some six weeks or thereabouts in the actual work of putting
it into position. It will be the first organ built by the firm in this city,
and we are confident that for this reason alone, if for no other, they will
give us a specimen of their best workmanship. The W. W. Kimball Company have an
almost unrivalled financial standing, and although hitherto they have not
succeeded in gaining an entrance into Philadelphia, they have nevertheless
constructed organs in New York, Pittsburgh, Rochester and other large cities.

The New Organ

On the evening of Sunday Oct 29th, the
congregation was afforded, for the first time, an opportunity of hearing the
Bernard J. Corr Memorial Organ, and judging its merits. A recital, participated
in by the following eminent organists of our city, enabled all who were present
to reach the conclusion, that in this new organ, the Gesu has an instrument of
abundant power and of exceptionally sweet musical tone. The artists
contributing to the pleasure of the evening were:

Francis J. O'Brien, Organist and
Choirmaster of the Gesu

David D. Wood, Organist and Choirmaster of
St. Steven's Church

William Sylvano Thunder, Organist and
Choirmaster of the Cathedral

Martin J. Douville, Organist and
Choirmaster of St. Charles' Church

In addition to the instrumental numbers on
the program, the vocal selections rendered by the boy choir of the Church
called for unstinted praise, the Credo from the Mass of the Angels being
exceptionally fine.

Organs made
by the Kimball Company have always been given high praise. They are easily the
equivalent of the Aeolian Skinner Co products or organs built by Austin. Given the quality of the instrument the fate of this organ was unusually harsh. The
wind system in a pipe organ contains leather products in the bellows and
windchest mechanisms that need to be renewed periodically. Every 40 – 50 years
an organ requires an overhaul to replace these leathers. In the early 1950’s
the Gesu was being renovated. The Kimball organ was exhibiting the usual
symptoms of leaking reservoirs, cyphers and dead notes. Instead of committing
funds for an overhaul the decision was made either by bad advice or an excess
of modernism to replace the organ with an early Allen electronic (the fourth
organ). Usually when an electronic organ is purchased to replace a pipe organ,
the practice is to strip the windchests of pipes and place the speakers on the
rackboards. Most of the time enough exists of the original instrument to make
an educated guess about what came before. In this case the original organ was
totally and aggressively destroyed. The only thing left for us to ponder is the
façade with display pipes, the blower and the organ bench. The irony of the
situation is that the Allen purchased used lots and lots of vacuum tubes and
they are no longer available. And so, this “organ” is completely dead[6].
So much for a superior replacement.

Recently some
additional information has become available from the archives of the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center. In 1905 a brochure was published
with a rather complete description of the organ along with a stop list and
other details. It is quite clear that this organ was the subject of much pride.
The stoplist shows that it was quite a nice instrument, capable of playing most
of the repertoire, ancient and modern. And so, why fifty years later was this organ
being destroyed? Perhaps a short discussion here about “organ action” may help
to explain.

The term
“action” in this context refers to the internal mechanism that conveys the
organist’s command from the keyboard to the pipes. They are as follows:

Tracker
action: historically employed since the time the organ was invented
thousands of years ago, up to the present day. It consists of a system of
mechanical levers and other devices that give direct control from the
keyboards to the windchests, thus causing the pipes to speak.

Electropneumatic
Action: A system of electrical connections and switches that would
communicate between the keyboards and the windchests. In the early part of
the 20th century, organ builders were just beginning to
implement these systems, and some builders deemed them unreliable. Now,
however it is the system of choice, other than tracker instruments. In
many cases, the consoles for new organs have computer enhancements in them
to help manage the stop action.

Tubular
Pneumatic Action: In the middle of the 19th century,
tubular pneumatic actions began to be experimented with, mostly overseas.
Instead of an electrical connection as above, the wire was replaced with a
“tube”, and in this case it amounted to several hundred runs of small
diameter lead pipe containing compressed air. Instead of a contact on the
back of each key, there was a valve that bled the air out of the tube when
the key was depressed.

Unfortunately the Gesu Organ was built with Tubular Pneumatic Action.
When releathering became necessary, the action had deteriorated to such an
extent that the organ was all but unplayable. The proper thing to do would have
been to retrofit the instrument with new windchests and a new console, but I
suppose that the management deemed the cost to be too high.

This organ was a transition instrument. From the description it contained
several holdovers from the past. These included preset stop combinations which
were a feature of the earlier tracker organs, along with a modest settable
combination action. Although the span of the keyboards was the usual 61 notes,
the pedal keyboard ran only to ‘f’ on the top end rather than ‘g’ which was
customary even back then. The size of the immense casework is deceiving. A
large part of the bottom section was required to contain the presettable
combination action and other machinery. Today this would be on a computer board
but back then it required many cubic yards of space. Also the organ had 2 - 32’
registers in the pedal, and 8 – 16’ registers distributed among the pedal and
keyboards. These take up considerable space, too.

Additional information has surfaced lately. A proposal was solicited from
the Mudler-Hunter Company to repair the organ by removing the tubular pneumatic
action and redoing the console. The proposal was dated July 1946 for the amount
of $17930.60 and this amounted to a major overhaul. Also another document
surfaced which was an accounting of the purchase of the Allen Organ from
Strawbridge & Clothier at 8th & Market St. The amount was
$13725.00 in June of 1953. And so for the difference of approximately $4200.00
the church lost a fine pipe organ. All this transpired before the parish began
its decline. To put this in perspective, $4200.00 in this era amounted to a
teacher’s salary for one year.

Figure 8: The Kimball Organ as installed

Figure 9: The Kimball Organ casework as it is right now

Figure 10: Another view

Figure 11: Another view, towards ceiling

The Picture Gallery

The St. Francis Xavier Altar is
featured in the picture below. This is located on the right front side of the
church just outside the sanctuary.

Figure 12: St Francis Xavier Altar

The St. Ignatius Altar is
featured in the picture below. It is located on the left front side of the
church just outside the sanctuary near the small organ which you can just see
on the left.

Figure 13: St Ignatius Altar

The console of the small Hook and
Hastings organ is presented in the two following pictures.

Figure 14: Hook & Hastings Organ

Figure 15: Hook & Hastings Organ

The Side Chapel of St Patrick is
shown in the picture below. It was taken from the triforum looking down across
the nave.

Figure 16: St Patrick's Side Chapel

You are looking up the nave from
the organ loft in this picture.

Figure 17: View from organ loft towards main altar

The Author

John McEnerney studied
organ with William Tapp at Incarnation Church, 5th & Lindley in Philadelphia. Later he studied with Robert Elmore for several years and while on
assignment in Princeton he studied with Carl Weinrich. Robert Elmore was
organist at Central Moravian Church in Bethlehem, and organist at 10th
Presbyterian Church in Phila. Carl Weinrich was the head of the Organ
Department at Westminster Choir College and organist at Princeton University
Chapel for more than 30 years until he retired in the 1980’s. He is featured on
many recordings.

Mr. McEnerney is an Electrical
Engineer and Software Engineer, and a teacher of Mathematics. Organ and
composition are enjoyable avocations. He is married and has as many (grand)
children as the house can hold.

[1]
The only known copy of this document resides in the St Joseph’s University
Archives in Overbrook.

[2]
Those of you who remember the “Old Prep” will recall that the gymnasium was
recycled from the portion of the complex occupied by the first rectory. It was
possible to climb above the gymnasium and see the original rooms occupied by
the Jesuits. The accommodations were primitive by modern standards. Also there
was a passageway between those original rooms and the organ loft in the church,
which had been bricked up. The doorway is still visible today from within the
right rear triforum of the church.

[3]
It is interesting to note that a surprising number of African Americans are
Catholic. In their number the most popular religion is Southern Baptist
followed by Catholicism. Elsewhere in the city, when a house has changed
ownership members of the Legion of Mary have sought out the new owners and
invited them and their families to attend church regardless of religion, with
encouraging results.

[4]
I have been playing the organ for more than 45 years. I started my career as an
organist in this church when I was in high school with Fr. Hammernick SJ (then
Mr. Hammernick) as a mentor. I consider myself to be an expert in the field.

[6]
In my opinion electronic organs have their place. They are useful in a
residence or a small chapel. I have one in my home that I use to practice on. But
they have no place in a major church like the Gesu.